Iryna Akulovich steps down as head of BelTA

Iry­na Akulovich has been dis­missed as gen­er­al direc­tor of the state-owned news agency BelTA, report­ed­ly due to a tran­si­tion to anoth­er posi­tion. The announce­ment was made by the pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nel “Pul Per­vo­go.”

Iry­na Akulovich. Pho­to: BelTA

Accord­ing to the chan­nel, Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashen­ka signed the rel­e­vant decree on Novem­ber 25.

Akulovich, orig­i­nal­ly from Mahilou, entered the media sec­tor after work­ing in edu­ca­tion. She has led BelTA since 2018, with her appoint­ment coin­cid­ing with the high-pro­file “BelTA case,” in which jour­nal­ists from inde­pen­dent media out­lets were pros­e­cut­ed over alle­ga­tions of unau­tho­rized access to BelTA mate­ri­als avail­able on paid sub­scrip­tion.

Before join­ing the agency, Akulovich served as direc­tor of the state-run Mahilou Tele­vi­sion and Radio Com­pa­ny begin­ning in 2009. From 2016 to 2019, she was a mem­ber of the Coun­cil of the Repub­lic. She is cur­rent­ly includ­ed on sanc­tions lists in Switzer­land and the Euro­pean Union.

“Pul Per­vo­go” did not dis­close where Akulovich will work next, but hint­ed at a “very unex­pect­ed move.” It also remains unclear who will take over lead­er­ship of the state infor­ma­tion agency.